Friday

Catie’s first full day of preschool went well! She did try to run out of the building in her indoor shoes to greet me, but at least she was happy and not in tears! We even went back into the school for her uniform fitting and she was very excited to show me all the musical instruments. (The uniform is just a red polo shirt until October and then a red sweatshirt with the school logo in the fall & winter.) They gave me a huge bag of additional supplies they issue to each student. I was bit surprised about some of it- like individual clay modeling tools (really necessary?), but all the containers, bags, and school supplies look kind of fun. My homework for the weekend is to label each item- every single crayon, marker, etc. I’m going to need another Sharpie. The best thing of all was that she was disappointed that she couldn't go to school this morning (Saturday)!

Here are 5 things I’ve learned about Japanese kindergarten this week:

1. Japanese preschool is all about the bags & hats. I’m not really sure what the logic is behind their needing a specific bag and a specific hat for every possible task, but the results are pretty darn cute, at least the hat part. The bags are a little more annoying and scarier.

Catie sporting her outing hat. It is reversible yellow or white to distinguish teams on sports day. She was fitted for the fall navy everyday hat- so darn cute! I cannot wait until it comes in. I declined to purchase the striped summer/spring hat, since they are changing over to the fall version in September.

 

 2. There are monthly height & weight measurements in preschool. I do not know if this extends to all schools or is FIK specific, but I thought it was interesting.

3. Preschools appear to be very safety conscious. Her school has earthquake, fire, or miscellaneous safety drill at least once a month. I’m glad they have these, but I was surprised at how many there are! I’m also not sure what happens with shoes during these drills. Catie was pretty well clotheslined by no less than 3 teachers/fellow students when she attempted to rush out in her indoor shoes. Do you think they stop and change shoes during a fire drill? Hmmm.

4. If you don’t finish your lunch, you don’t get dessert. Ok, not really a surprise here. What was a surprise is that they package it all up and give it to the parents of kids who didn’t finish! At the end of the day the principal stood there handing doggie bags out to all the kids who didn’t eat all their lunch that day. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think this was more about public shame than not wasting food. Either way, I was amused.

5. They have pretty cool school activities & field trips. We’re looking forward to our visit to the fire department, a Halloween party, sweet potatoes harvest day (from the students own plot) and subsequent sweet potato roast a couple of weeks later, and a whole host of other fun activities!

just to show you how close the school is, here's the view off our balcony